When a selective epitaxial growth process is applied to an etched surface during a semiconductor manufacturing process desired epitaxial growth may be difficult to obtain due to impurities adsorbed to and/or solidified in the surface and/or due to lattice damage. This has acted as an obstacle in the manufacturing of various semiconductor devices.
Meanwhile, demand for high levels of integration and high degrees of performance has continuously fueled the reduction in the sizes of complementary metal oxide silicon (CMOS) field effect transistors (FETs). However, as transistors are reduced in size due to short channel effects, it is increasingly difficult to enhance the performance thereof. Thus, research into the improvement of carrier mobility in a channel region has actively been conducted to improve transistor performance.